Germain Racing stepping up to Nextel Cup

Timing is everything in auto racing, and Bob Germain believes the time is right for his young racing team to play with NASCAR’s big boys in the Nextel Cup Series.

In the midst of a memorable season in the Craftsman Truck Series, Naples-based Germain Racing was tabbed Wednesday by Toyota to join Wyler Racing in 2007 for around a dozen races with the new Car of Tomorrow that NASCAR plans to launch at Bristol, Tenn., next spring.

But Germain also confirmed his top driver, Todd Bodine, will test the Nextel Cup waters the first weekend of August in Indianapolis at the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.

“We’re committed to go to Indianapolis and try and qualify a car up there with Todd driving,” Germain said. “Those are not Toyotas because obviously Toyota is not going to be in any Cup races this year, so I believe that the cars that we’re building may be Chevys. We have a sponsor that we’ve been talking to that’s interested in running maybe five or six Cup races with us this year.”

Some of the other possible venues Germain Racing could compete at this summer are in Texas, Atlanta, Homestead and New Hampshire, all big, mile-and-a-half tracks that Bodine has performed well on,

Germain Racing debuted in the NCTS at Richmond in 2004. The team is affiliated with Germain Motor Company owned and operated by the Germain brothers: Bob, Steve and Rick Germain.

The Germain Motor Company collectively owns 15 dealerships, representing 12 different manufacturers in Naples, Sarasota, Columbus, Ohio, and Bentonville, Ariz.

Bodine and Ted Musgrave currently rank 1-2 in the NCTS standings and are separated by just 20 points (1140-1120) heading into this weekend’s race at Dover (Del.), giving Germain and his team an excellent shot at winning a championship. Bob Germain reiterated that his team is committed to racing for Toyota in the truck series next season and beyond.

“I told Todd we still have him booked to run a full truck schedule in 2007 in addition to running 11 or 12 Cup, races so I told him he better get on a serious fitness regimen,” said Germain, who first met with Toyota executives in January to express his interest in moving up to the Nextel Cup Series. “Todd’s a very talented driver. He can absolutely drive as well as anybody out there in trucks or Busch and I don’t think anybody would dispute that. We think he can be successful at the Cup level.”

The Car of Tomorrow is a bigger, boxier vehicle with a front-end splitter that NASCAR has designed to eventually replace the slick aerodynamic models that manufacturers spent the past 10 years developing. The Car of Tomorrow is scheduled to run in 15 races next season in a phase-in process that will be complete by 2009.

NASCAR officials held the latest Car of Tomorrow test on Tuesday at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Only Chevrolet and Dodge took part. Ford teams didn’t participate because they are waiting for NASCAR to approve a final car design before they begin building another model, and Toyota didn’t have a car at the test because its Car of Tomorrow is not yet completed.

The next test is Aug. 21 at Michigan International Speedway.

Jim Aust, vice president of Toyota Motorsports and president and CEO of Toyota Racing Development, said it was something of a surprise when the Germain and Wyler teams approached him about competing in Cup next year.

“We had planned on only running three teams and six cars next year, but these guys came forward and said they’d like to look into running some races with the Car of Tomorrow to test the water,” Aust said.

Toyota announced in January that it would run six cars in Cup racing in 2007 — two each with the new Michael Waltrip Racing and Red Bull teams, and two with the Bill Davis Racing organization that now races Dodges.

So far, the only drivers confirmed for any of those teams are Waltrip and former Cup champion Dale Jarrett, who will drive for him.

Asked if any of its other truck teams might step forward with Cup plans, Aust said, “I don’t think there will be any more than that.”

- - -

The Associated Press contributed to this report.